Re-documenting the US Invasion of Panamá amid the Contact Zone in Diciembres

Abstract

abstract:Using the film Diciembres (Decembers, Enrique Castro Ríos, 2018) as its case study, this article details the historical link between the Panama Canal—from its construction to ensuing struggles for its control—and the early development of cinema. The article moreover interrogates the zoning practices that inform the logics of both the canal and cinema in general. The argument puts film theory and decolonial thought into conversation with Diciembres, which narrativizes the 1989 US invasion of Panamá, as the formal operation of this film demonstrates yet transgresses the notion of a "contact zone" within de/colonial imaginaries.